‘Immunotherapy is particularly effective’
Medical science is booming. New medicines, treatments and insights are added every year. But which ones will really make the difference? We asked five doctors who specialize in
cancer, cardiac surgery, migraine, COPD and geriatric medicine. What are they looking forward to in 2019?
Hans Gelderblom (55) is an internist-oncologist and head of the Medical Oncology department at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC).
‘Immunotherapy is particularly effective’
In addition to chemotherapy, radiation and surgery, a new cancer treatment is emerging: immunotherapy. With this treatment, your own immune cells (T cells) are used against the cancer cells. “Normally, your T cells attack foreign bacteria and viruses,” Gelderblom explains. “In immunotherapy, they also clear up tumor cells. They do this effectively and patients often tolerate this treatment much better than chemotherapy. Only one in twenty patients has serious side effects. That is relatively little.”
Immunotherapy is now being trialled in melanoma, a form of skin cancer, and in lung, bladder and kidney cancer. According to Gelderblom, doctors will also apply the new therapy to a certain type in the coming period breast cancer and head and neck tumors. A disadvantage of immunotherapy is that it is very expensive, as are many new drugs that come on the market for cancer. Are you over 70 eligible for these expensive treatments? Gelderblom: “In the coming years we will get answers to this. I predict that we will no longer be looking at a person’s calendar age, but at his or her biological age. Some 75-year-olds are much fitter than others. More and more tests are coming on the market that look at mental and physical fitness and estimated life expectancy. Anyway, always talk to the doctor about the possibilities. Also be open to researching new treatments. In our country, research is being done at a very high level.”
There is more good news: there are more and more good biosimilars, alternative cancer drugs that are just as good but cheaper. Gelderblom: “Medicines are so expensive because the pharmaceutical industry owns the patents and can charge a lot of money for them. If those patents expire after a number of years, other manufacturers will have the opportunity to counterfeit medicines. We call these drugs biosimilars. They have exactly the same function and the same safety, but are a lot cheaper. Rituximab in lymphomas and trastuzumab in breast cancer are good examples from practice.”
This article originally appeared in Plus Magazine January 2019. Not yet a Plus Magazine subscriber? Becoming a subscriber is done in no time!
Sources):
- Plus Magazine
